Skin Deep
by n8rthedomin8r
Summary: Catherine and Warrick both know they have feelings for each other, and when Grissom puts them on a 419 in Summerlin, things heat up. Greg, Sara, Nick, and Griss are left with a gambler with a missing leg, and now, will anybody find Nick in time on the st
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One Dead Bodies

"Why is there a ring on your ring finger?" She said accusationally.

"Oh," Warrick smiled, "because I'm married now." He'd replied.

"Cath!" Grissom barked, "Case assignments." He waved the files in her face, jerking Catherine out of the flashback. She and Warrick had talked about his elopement months and months ago, but it still bothered her, though she wasn't going to show it.

"Right. What do we have?" She said.

Grissom gave her a thin file,

"I've got you and Warrick on a DB up in Summerlin," he turned away, "Nick, Sara and Greg you're with me."

"Well what do we have?" Greg asked. Grissom looked at him and said slowly,

"A high roller with a missing leg at the Bellagio."

Sara sucked in air, she hated Mondays. Greg looked nauseous,

"Glad I asked."

Grissom smiled,

"Let's get to work." And with that, the 7 of them begrudgingly left the room.

Sara snapped off a couple of pictures of meth with the camera while Nick was processing the room. Greg was taking blood samples off a champagne glass, he checked to make sure it was blood. It was.

"Blood on the glass." He said, he held it up to inspect it further, "how did it get on here? You would expect there to be more blood, especially on the bed where they found the body, but there was only a small pool. But just this glass and the sheets have noticeable blood." He pulled out a bag a carefully slid the glass in, he had already dusted and checked for fingerprints. None.

"You want weird Greggo?" Nick said, he dusted the glass top of the bedside table, "no fingerprints, on ANY surface I could dust for. How do you kill a guy and not leave any fingerprints, anywhere?" He dusted the chair, still nothing.

Sara lowered the camera,

"Maybe he replaced the sheets after the blood coagulated long enough to only allow a small pool to form on the bed, and the edge of the bloody sheets wiped off on the glass on the way out?"

"What about the missing fingerprints? And where would he get extra sheets?" Nick asked. Sara shrugged,

"I don't know, maybe --?"

"Wait." Nick pulled his activated beeper out the his pocket and read the number,

"Guys, Grissom wants us downstairs, pronto." He put the beeper back, and shrugged.

"Why would he want us now? We're still processing the room!" Greg asked, he was looking for any blood on the walls with the UV flashlight.

"Hey I don't know, I just get the messages." He stopped, "I gotta talk to Grissom about that." Sara smiled and followed him out the door, Greg followed her, taking his kit, and the evidence they collected with him. He wasn't about to take any chances, after Nick's car was stolen with every piece of evidence collected from the crime scene in it, he wasn't going to do that again.

Catherine got out of the driver's side of the SUV, Warrick got out the other.

The address of the deceased was a pretty upscale neighborhood, which surprised them.

"How could a killer even get through the front gate?" Warrick asked, he didn't come from this kind of money.

"Just climbing over the walls usually does it. But, still, it's not the place you'd expect to find a dead body." Catherine said. She walked into the house under the police tape. Warrick followed, he bent under almost fully at the waist, he was a lot taller than Catherine. They went through the door and were overwhelmed by the stench of death.

Warrick wrinkled his nose and held up a hand to block the smell, Catherine started to breathe through her mouth, there was a dead man spread eagle in the middle of the living room floor.

"Wow, how long was this guy dead for David?" David looked up at her,

"About three days, which is why he stinks."

"I'll process the living room – Cat?" Warrick looked up at his friend, she really is beautiful, he thought. Catherine almost made him doubt his marriage to Tina, and he tried to shake the thought from his head. Focus Warrick, he thought.

"Yeah?" Catherine answered, she was fingering papers on the kitchen counter. She had already started taking pictures of them.

"What do ya got?" Warrick asked, coming over.

Catherine's eyes were wide,

"This guy was a doctor, a surgeon. Why would someone want to kill a person that helped people?" sometimes, why people killed others completely baffled her.

Warrick sighed and reached over Catherine's shoulder to look at the papers, his eyes squinted,

"These are paychecks. They aren't cashed." He looked up at her with his eyebrows raised.

"How long ago were they from?" Catherine asked. She walked away and started snapping pictures of the blood smudged on the glass door, and the microwave.

"You're never gonna believe this," Warrick started, "these go all the way back to '04."

Catherine turned around,

"What! That can't be right." But sure enough, he was right.

"So the guy doesn't cash his checks from '04, and now, he's dead." She put her hand on her hip.

Warrick smiled, something he rarely did and had no idea why he was grinning now,

"We've got motive." He held up the papers and put them into a bag, for evidence.

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please rate! Trust me, it will get a lot better but i just wanted to end this chapter.

thanx


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two – I've Got It **

"Griss?" Nick asked as the three CSI's walked up. Grissom was talking to the man who found the body, it was room service.

"Oh, Nick." Grissom looked at Greg and Sara in confusion, "you guys didn't need to come. I thought you were still processing the room?" Sara sighed, and Greg rolled his eyes,

"Of course we were." They turned around and trudged back up the stairs to the crime scene.

Nick's eyes followed them until they were out of sight.

"What's up?" he asked Grissom. Grissom pulled him over away from the room service guy,

"You want to be in charge of this one Nicky? I've got a couple things to take care of." Grissom asked. Nick was surprised, but pleased,

"Yeah, sure. I'm all over it!" Nick ran up the stairs following Sara and Greg. Grissom smiled at him and gave a wave before heading out of the hotel.

"Was this guy married?" Warrick asked to no one in particular. He was snapping pictures of the body.

Catherine stepped over a pool of blood and looked at the guy's left hand and checked his ring finger, there was a thick gold band on it.

"Yup." She put his hand down and started up the stairs.

"Marriage problems maybe?" Warrick said, soft and troubled.

Catherine looked at him, trying not to show the hope in her eyes,

"Something wrong, War?"

"Oh. Promise you won't word get out?" he asked her.

"Of course. What's up?" She could barely contain the flutter in her heart. _C'mon, say what I what to hear_! She willed silently.

He sighed heavily,

"Me and Tina got into this huge fight last Friday. She left, and she hasn't called me or come back home since. Although she did take all her stuff out of the house while I was at work." He snapped a couple of pictures, "I think we're done. I jumped the question too fast because I was afraid somethin' bad was gonna happen. I've just been edgy ever since Nick…" he decided not to mention it. Catherine felt like jumped up and down and yelling with happiness, _YES!_

She screamed in her head triumphantly. But she stayed in control and said with as much sadness as possible in her happy state,

"Wow. Oh my God Warrick. This is big, I'm – so sorry." Catherine said softly. She was practically ready to jump up and down, and the worst part was that she had to keep it all a secret.

"Yeah, me too. I think," he looked at the victim, "and maybe I've saved myself from this." He pointed at the man on the floor. Catherine half laughed, "yeah, me too."

Warrick smiled, again. _What the hell is wrong with me?_ He thought. He smiled way to much today, but he couldn't help himself.

Catherine smiled back,

"You really should smile more often Warrick. You've got an incredible smile." Warrick grinned and got back to work. He could flirt with Catherine later.

Nick ran up the stairs two at a time, he was psyched that he was in charge of this case. Even though he was wondering why Grissom couldn't handle it himself, like he did everything else. Nick was lost in his thoughts, and rapidly climbing the fire escape stairs, and pretty soon everything went black.

"Where's Nick?" Sara asked, she looked worried. Greg was bagging the meth in the drawers.

"I don't know, maybe he stopped for a pit stop?" he said a small smile on his face. Sara turned around and smirked at him.

"So not funny." She said, but she got back to work.

MEANWHILE….

Nick slowly moved his hand up to his head. He had an insane headache, and when he touched his forehead, he felt a warm liquid. He set his mouth in a straight line and moaned into the step he had crashed into, "Great."


End file.
